The CEC Ministry started work early this year. All teachers met on the morning of the 5th January (Saturday) in St. Faustina Hall at CDM for a meeting cum formation. The session began with Dr. Mary Filmer telling two stories of teachers’ classroom experiences. The first was entitled “The Egg Project” which related how a mentally challenged boy taught his classmates his meaning of “resurrection”. The second story was on “The Blue Berry Story” that explained that in our classrooms we do not reject “spoilt goods” as do all successful businesses. The object of the stories was to emphasize that as faith sharers we need to see the uniqueness in all of God’s children no matter how challenging they may make our time with them in the classrooms.

This was then followed by a game adapted from the computer game entitled “Mine Sweeper”. The group was divided into two and each competed to safely reach “home” first. In this game the participants learnt that sometimes we needed the help of others to succeed; there are times when too much advice is bad and we needed to rely on our own strengths and be confident in what we do; occasionally we needed to take a step back to reflect before proceeding and a friendly working environment makes a difference to everyone.

The meeting ended with the distribution of some classroom supplies and class registers to teachers. They were also each given a copy of the Compendium of the CCC. The teachers then were invited to meet with the previous class teachers to discuss any classroom management problems with the more challenging students under their care. A packaged lunch was then provided and the teachers proceeded to their classrooms to prepare the rooms for catechism the next day.

The next day, Bishop Emeritus Rt. Rev. Antony Selvanayagam who presided over morning mass, together with the congregation witnessed all CEC teachers give their pledge of faith to the Ministry. He then proceeded to give them a blessing. His Grace also reminded all parents not to take the catechism teachers for granted and that the primary educator of the faith was the parents.

At the assembly, before the children proceeded to their classes, His Grace gave them all a blessing. They were reminded to come for every catechism class and to see Jesus in each of their classmates. Each teacher was also given a prayer card to recite just before their class.